Dot directives must appear outside a description block and must appear at the beginning of a line. Dot directives begin with a period (.) and are followed by a colon (:). Spaces and tabs can precede and follow the colon. These directive names are case sensitive and must be uppercase.
.IGNORE :
Ignores nonzero exit codes returned by programs called from the makefile. By default, NMAKE halts if a command returns a nonzero exit code. This directive affects the makefile from the place it is specified to the end of the file. To turn it off again, use the !CMDSWITCHES preprocessing directive. To ignore the exit code for a single command, use the dash (–) command modifier. To ignore exit codes for an entire file, invoke NMAKE with the /I option.
.PRECIOUS : targets
Tells NMAKE not to delete targets if the commands that build them are interrupted. This directive has no effect if a command is interrupted and handles the interrupt by deleting the file. Separate the target names with one or more spaces or tabs. By default, NMAKE deletes the target if building was interrupted by CTRL+C or CTRL+BREAK. Multiple specifications are cumulative; each use of .PRECIOUS applies to the entire makefile.
.SILENT :
Suppresses display of the command lines as they are executed. By default, NMAKE displays the commands it invokes. This directive affects the makefile from the place it is specified to the end of the file. To turn it off again, use the !CMDSWITCHES preprocessing directive. To suppress display of a single command line, use the @ command modifier. To suppress the command display for an entire file, invoke NMAKE with the /S option.
.SUFFIXES : list
Lists file suffixes (extensions) for NMAKE to try to match when it attempts to apply an inference rule. (For details about using .SUFFIXES, see “Inference Rules”.) The list is predefined as follows:
.SUFFIXES : .exe .obj .asm .c .cpp .cxx .bas .cbl .for .pas .res .rc
To add additional suffixes to the end of the list, specify
.SUFFIXES : suffixlist
where suffixlist is a list of the additional suffixes, separated by one or more spaces or tabs. To clear the list, specify
.SUFFIXES :
without extensions. To change the list order or to specify an entirely new list, you must clear the list and specify a new setting. To see the current setting, run NMAKE with the /P option.